... pressure until I started having anxiety and panic attacks
Panic Disorder - Does anyone have high blood pressure from anxiety? I always had normal blood?
Question posted by Bailey666 on 30 Jan 2014
Last updated on 4 December 2020 by large24
45 Answers
large24
4 Dec 2020
Without question they go hand in hand that's why it's been so hard to get on the right dosage of bp meds when I'm calm my bp is 110/65/60 let me get a call from someone or let me get into a flight or fight response I go to 164/90/80 .I try to keep my bp on the lower side so I pretty much have it down to a science as far as dosage because of these stressful times on top of my anxiety.i probably would be far better off going on an antidepressant but not ready . Any way the short answer your emotions control bp never take bp when your feeling anxious it will just keep rising take it from me I should follow my own advise
Karla Douglas
4 Dec 2020
I'm not absolutely certain but in my experience they are one and the same. It's as if every time my anxiety and/ or panic attacks begins my blood pressure seems to increase. I have paid for meds ,blood pressure machines and also hospital bills but,they're one in the same. It's not easy and sometimes unbearable etc.etc.ect
amandaspenziero1
3 Oct 2020
I have been experiencing something similar. I have had panic attacks and anxiety since I was 19. I’ve always had hypertension since about 22. Now background I’ve also had two strokes, but caused by vertebral /carotid artery dissections (no plaque or stiffening or weakness of arteries). I was recently pregnant for 9 months and my BP was under control with medication the entire time. After my c-section my BP was slightly higher so they increased my BP medicine.
6 weeks post-partum I was not feeling good one day and took my blood pressure and it was 160/117. I could not get it to come down and starting panicking and called an ambulance Where they read e same numbers . It was that high there and at the ER registered And the gave me another BP pill and waited to read the numbers . They got it down to 150/105. I started crying and feeling I was go to go home and die because I have al these things I’ve been through and they gave me a sedative.
When they discharged me it was 140/94. They said I already have HBp but I was probably having a panic attack and made it higher. Told me the call my doctor in the AM and get re-prescribed my Xanax and sertraline.
The next day my blood pressure again hit 160/120. I started freaking out and called my ob/gyn after hours line. My ob/gyn who delivered my baby said that my 2 Xanax and come to labor and delivery so they could run some tests . They did blood work and urine cultures to make sure It was not preeclampsia after child birth. It was not and over the three hours I was there it went down to 130/90.
I feel insane , like something is going to happen to me but they’re saying it’s panicking and stress . I’m thinking my only option is to see my cardiologist and maybe see a therapist for post-partum depression
krdjr7
3 Oct 2020
Hi there,
For me, anxiety and stress definitely increased my BP. It’s a lot better now, but at the height of my stress and anxiety over a year ago it was sky high. If you’re like me, I would then get anxious and just checking my BP because I knew it would be high. All that did was drive up my BP even more when I checked it. I became obsessed with it, I was checking my BP multiple times a day. I finally decided to just stop obsessing about it and focus on reducing my stress and anxiety. It wasn’t overnight, but now my BP is normal and my anxiety and stress are in a good place. Good luck!
Mzmaam
8 Oct 2020
I’m currently having this same issue. My anxiety flairs up and my blood pressure shoots up and apparently this has my doctor worried that I may have hyper aldosteronism and now she wants to run all these test to check my kidneys to make sure I’m not having more problems in which has my anxiety in a whirl wind. I feel fine outside of the anxiety and the spiking blood pressure. She added another bp med since the spikes. Which she told me I can come off once my numbers return to normal. I just want this to go away. Has anyone experienced any of this and can provide insight. Thanks sorry if I’m all over the place.
Scottj
4 Sep 2020
Yes, my anxiety was affecting my blood pressure. When I went from 5mg of Lexapro to 10mg my blood pressure went down significantly. Klonopin also helps my blood pressure. I take that only when I get really stressed out or if I can’t fall asleep.
Bigpop81
6 May 2020
Weight started my high BP and anxiety from the meds kept me there. I attacked it beginning with a whole food plant based diet and daily walking. It helped tons. But I have nocturnal panic attacks, so meditation can’t help me by the time I wake up ad it 160/100. Soo, I decided to loose more weight, drop salt according to the plant based philosophy of T Colin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies at Cornell. So far it’s been better. This means no oil And sugar. Whatever it takes to get my vessels healthy and gives me wiggle room when I have an attack to not go so high. It’s like, I can have stress and anxiety, or salt and sugar and oil, but I can’t have both. It’s taken 15 years to finally get here. I urge anyone with these issues to investigate this program. Also see The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine and Dr. Barnards new release of Your Body in Balance, Dr. John McDougall. They offer tons of free help. Their FB pages are great as well.
Do not suffer alone. I still have family stress that keeps me having anxiety, but it is getting better and I am off meds now. It all starts with the food. Its only some time out of your day to check it out. Peace and Healing.
Drew22a1
30 Jan 2020
I have the same problem what I was told it's my anxiety that is controlling my blood pressure
large24
29 April 2019
Little lottie the best advice I can give you and I know this through years of experience is that the worse time to check your pressure is in the midst of a panic or anxiety attack the more times you check the higher your pressure will go.i would take an extra 5 milligrams of my amlodipine to lower my pressure or a piece of xanax it would help for the time being but when your relaxed and your pressure drops I would get light headed so my advice is take your medicine as directed go outside and get some fresh air go for a walk or ride and know your triggers people or places try to avoid .Remember no one or no thing is worth getting sick over I'm still working on this myself.
LittleLottie
29 April 2019
I have been having really bad panic attacks lately and I can't even leave the house. My blood pressure will go up to 180 over 100 or even a bit higher when I have a attack. They tried some different bp medicines on me and they made the anxiety worse. I don't know how to fix this. I can't even drive anymore. I'm only 55 and I feel like my life is over. I feel like this panic disorder is keeping me from living.
MMalcolm101
6 Aug 2019
This is panic disorder with agoraphobia, quite common. I would highly recommend that you seek a referral to psychiatry for treatment of your panic disorder. The reason is that primary care, internal medicine and others in this specialty only subscribe to the use of SSRIs, which for panic disorder do not provide relief and can many times exacerbate the problem. Benzodiazapines are rarely prescribed and if so are only given in very limited quantity for what is termed breakthrough panic events while under SSRI treatment. They typically provide very short-acting forms of this medication such as Ativan or Xanax and although they work extremely well, they have a short half-like and addiction potential, so they are for very limited use.
Psychiatry is often rebuffed by patients because of the stigma that it represents something wrong with them mentally, but in reality panic disorder in most cases originates from extreme separation anxiety as a child and its expression over the years varies in clinical symptoms but can indeed produce blood pressure spikes to sometimes alarming levels because it is part of the physiologic reaction to the body's fight or flight syndrome.
My advice is to seek out psychiatry and discuss your panic disorder in detail. It is often the case that for panic disorder with agoraphobia the psychiatrist will prescribe a longer half-life benzodiazapine like Clonazepam, brand name Klonopin, dosage from .5 to 1mg bid, or twice daily. It will stop your panic attacks in their tracks. Some patients might experience transient side-effects that typically go away with treatment and it is not the sort of disorder that requires regular psychiatric treatment of any type, more of a one-time visit with follow-up to make sure the medication is working for you and any side-effects tolerable or transient. Understand that if for any reason you need to be removed from taking it, the psychiatrist can easily wean you from it over the course of a week or two with no lasting effects. You'll be surprised at the impact the medication will have on your daily function and will easily permit you to return to leaving your home as necessary without fear of an unexpected panic event. Clonazepam is not recommended if you have any problems with alcohol consumption and should never be used concomitantly with any opioid medications, which includes cough suppressants containing such medications. It is otherwise very safe to use, despite the extremely ridiculous horror stories that you might encounter from alcohol and drug treatment centers who often encounter people abusing the drug because they demonstrate addictive behavior patterns. For this particular population, medications with any abuse potential are, for lack of a better term, demonized in order to try and deter these people from using them, only serving to exacerbate their difficulties. It does, however, provide the treatment centers with a marketing program that serves both the alcohol dependent clients and their use of clonazepam used many times to treat alcoholism. The point is that unless you unlikely fall into that category, you can entirely ignore the ridiculous claims being marketed by the treatment center profession. Lastly, dependency upon long-acting benzodiazapines is extremely unlikely for short-term therapy so I strongly urge you to obtain a referral and discuss your difficulty with a psychiatrist to determine the best course to proceed. The important factor is to get your life back to normal and at such a relatively young age, be able to go out at your leisure without fear of an unexpected panic event. Clonazepam is the number one choice for treatment because of its safety, efficacy and side-effect profile.
Best regards
mickey16
8 March 2019
I have white coat syndrome. BP fine at home but high at the doctor's. I may not feel anxious at the doctor's but I do know that I concentrate on having them take my BP which I realize is really stupid. With me it is more of a dread than being anxious and I believe many of you feel the same. When I am active it really helps my BP or after running even for 15 min. My cardiologist told me that when you drink beer or wine your BP goes down , however, over 2 drinks and it works the opposite. The best thing is not to think about it, however, if you concentrate on relaxing at times , that does not help because you are actually thinking about it and forcing yourself to relax will have the opposite effect. My advice is * be happy don't worry! think happy thoughts not gloomy thoughts. and don't concentrate on your BP that is the worse thing you can do.
krdjr7
7 March 2019
Hi all,
I've been dealing with anxiety most of my adult life. Always manageable, but as I tell my wife recently I feel like something broke in me. I started to get really bad health anxiety after a 3 week bout of multiple issues that cleared up. However, i'm not battling terrible anxiety daily that borderlines panic attacks daily. I just started Buspar but told that can take up to 3-4 weeks to 'kick-in', so I'm hoping for the best. My dr also gave me .5 xanax to take as needed which is daily at this point until I get this under control. I was also very concerned with my BP going through this. Typically, it's pretty normal (130-80 or so) but when my anxiety ramps up it ranges from 140s to 150s on the top and anywhere from 90-100 or so on the bottom. My Dr put me on a beta blocker (50Mgs release tablets) to help control my BP and heart rate during my anxiety battle.
He told me this beta blocker can take a couple weeks to really take hold, so as of now my BP is still high when I'm in that anxious state. I would love to avoid taking the xanax and try daily, but right now just trying to pick my poison. The BP issue is my bigger concern so I'm taking the xanax in hopes that my buspar and beta blocker start doing their things soon.
I know I also need to talk with someone about this to work on my mind and why this is happening. That's also in the works, hopefully and appt soon to get on the roadway with that.
It can be hard and very lonely going through this, so my best wishes to everyone in their recovery.
Bphigh40
5 March 2019
I am a 40 year old female with a terrible case of white coat hypertension. I have been hypertensive since l was 18. At home when my husband takes my pressure it's around 152/106. For some reason whenever the doctor places the cuff on my arm my heart feels like it's going to burst from my chest and l can actually feel my pressure rising. Last week my pressures were 276/220 and 290/250.
LittleLottie
29 April 2019
The same thing happens to me. How do you make it come down. Do you take meds?
crazygirl66
17 June 2018
My blood pressure is fine, but I do wear Catapres patch for anxiety. It is actually used for blood pressure & it helps my neuropathy. In some people it has a calming effect. On me it doesn’t but I’m on the lowest dose & change the patch weekly. Blood pressure oral meds are also sometimes useful for anxiety. It may be worth asking your doc about. Especially if you’re not taking other meds. I’m now trying Zoloft for depression & anxiety.
comeonplease
17 June 2018
Yes
Lorid2830
13 June 2018
I forgot one thing, if any of you could give me the names of some support groups I would appreciate it very much.:)
Lorid2830
13 June 2018
Hi,I didn’t start having panic attacks until I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015. It was found early I’m cancer free 3 years now but the panic attacks are severe. As I write this now I’m having one. I hate this is how I choose to live my life. They put me on sertraline and it worked wonders. I weighed though 126 at the time I weigh 151 now. Yes that matters to me. I feel miserable so I stopped taking the sertraline and now only take Klonopin when I feel one coming on. It has helped my blood pressure , it hasn’t lessened the attacks. So yes it helps. I joined this group so I could speak how I feel without being ridiculed for stopping the sertraline, no one thinks that was a smart move. My decision though. I wish you all the best of luck:) it’s hard to live with but there are people out there worse off than we are . :)
Related topics
high blood pressure, anxiety, panic disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, blood disorders, blood pressure, disorder, blood, pressure
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